How To Repair Cracks In Ceiling

an upper limit on what is allowed; "he put a ceiling on the number of women who worked for him"; "there was a roof on salaries"; "they established a cap for prices"

An upper limit, typically one set on prices, wages, or expenditure

(meteorology) altitude of the lowest layer of clouds

The upper interior surface of a room or other similar compartment

the overhead upper surface of a covered space; "he hated painting the ceiling"

The maximum altitude that a particular aircraft can reach

how to

A how-to or a how to is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish some specific task. A how-to is usually meant to help non-experts, may leave out details that are only important to experts, and may also be greatly simplified from an overall discussion of the topic.

(How To’s) Multi-Speed Animations

Practical advice on a particular subject; that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic

repair

the act of putting something in working order again

Put right (a damaged relationship or unwelcome situation)

Fix or mend (a thing suffering from damage or a fault)

Make good (such damage) by fixing or repairing it

restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken; "She repaired her TV set"; "Repair my shoes please"

a formal way of referring to the condition of something; "the building was in good repair"

cracks

(crack) a long narrow opening

A line on the surface of something along which it has split without breaking into separate parts

A narrow space between two surfaces, esp. ones that have broken or been moved apart

A vulnerable point; a flaw

(crack) become fractured; break or crack on the surface only; "The glass cracked when it was heated"

At about 10:15 last night, my wife, puppy and I were huddled in the bathroom (most centralized room in our apartment, no basement) of our ground floor, Bloomington, Indiana apartment for the 6th tornado warning of the day (we're in the second from the right).
Just a precaution, of course.
While we were in there, listening to the TV in the other room and checking the radar, the power started to flicker and then just as it went out, we heard a loud thud, some cracking, felt some weird pressure, heard a few more thuds, and then all was quiet as we sat, waiting in our tub for the radar on our smart phones to tell us it was safe to emerge.
Before the radar said it was okay, there came a knocking at the door and as I stayed and held our puppy and calmed her down, my wife went out and answered it and it was one of the complex maintenance guys to tell us we had to get out because the roof had blown off our building and they weren't sure how much structural damage had been done.
Uhhh, for real?
We actually got hit by a tornado?
Apparently.
It was an EF 1 and has displaced us, leaving us to take up shelter in one of the empty apartments on the property until they can assess the damage and figure out the quickest and safest route to getting us back in there.
Living through something like this really puts things into perspective for you. I mean, it wasn't nearly as bad as Joplin, thank god, but when you're told you have to leave your home and you have to rush to collect what's important, you come to realize how much isn't important.
My heart goes out to anyone who has ever been through any kind of disaster, especially those who have nowhere to turn to.
It's a scary thing to deal with and I can only imagine how the residents of Joplin and other devastated towns feel when there's nothing left but the clothes on their backs and the debris cluttered ground beneath their feet.
As far as damage to our apartment, right now it just looks like water damage from the exposed to the elements apartment above us. They've since covered up all of the holes you see in the image above, but we're waiting to see how much damage is in our ceiling. We could very well end up back in there in a couple days after they've done a few repairs, or it could be weeks and we have to find somewhere else to live because someone moves into our temporary residence in two weeks.
Fortunately we have renters insurance and they'll cover a place to live for the time being if we need it. Others, some of the residents on the top floor who's stuff was completely destroyed, do not and you could feel the devastation radiating off of them as they made their way through the complex office this morning. It was heart wrenching and my thoughts are with them.
So, here's to things going more smooth then rough, not just for us or those in our complex, but for those in the trailer park that was destroyed, the surrounding towns that were hit by other tornadoes, and to everyone who has to go through this kind of bullshit.
It's no fun.

1 of those 1000s of things

As you see on the bottom edge part of the window frame, there is a gap.
And this house is built over underground stream - swamp - without having proper underground drainage system installed. (and more over, previous owner decided to plant as much as trees they liked to have - it's wrong to do that in this swampy soil, house just gets entirely stuck in the water saturated soil.)
And kitchen has no vent. Well, entire house almost has no vent. (And that's quite common in the USA. And high humidity and swampy soils - are also common in the USA. )
So condensation on the window glasses happen very easily. Humidity from basement, humidity from kitchen, humidity from bathroom. In winter, no matter how we heat the house, it just gets crazy amount of water condensation along windows - and ceilings.
and then you get this crappy window frame. Then the condensed water just pours out of that gap and soak the entire wooden frame part. Water seeps into all the gaps available - so the black mold finds it as their nest.
I see few repeated effort of putting stains on the wood frame by someone else before. But water comes around and soak frame every winter, so wood is tired. some part it's flaky already, and it's just -
Why don't build something reliable from the very first point?
For this water leaking windows sake, we have to tour around few rooms in this house twice a day - morning and evening - to wipe the water off. From windows and window frames.
I know I just can caulk it with silicon - or I can try to caulk it and see it'd stick and stay or not. (against water, - I believe we really don't have much tough caulking materials yet. All of them just peels off after a while, esp when along the window...)
And by all means, a house needs few vent structures. One for bathroom, one for kitchen, at least. But here in North East, having neither is quite common for houses say built before 80s it seems. (In California, we barely even see the house with real working kitchen vent though.)
Even I may caulk that gap still, the amount of water on the windows and ceiling would be 'just too much.'
We already did so much caulking for this house, and truly, we get numb. We just don't understand why things are built in functional and sturdy ways originally. Today I just dug up one of the memos we made when we just moved into the house.
It says
1. Insulate all wall power sockets. [And] They are installed in such poor ways, and we need to check all them up. All.
2. Patch up all the holes and cracks on the wall. Identify and patch all them up. There are too much holes and cracks, and gaps.
By now I know much American eyes won't even notice the gaps and cracks I notice and I'd patch up/caulk up. So when I start 'attending' each room by room, I start to notice 100s of things, which unprofessionally done, and previously unnoticed and un-repaired or ill-repaired - probably over decades.